Ocean's Breath Plateau deadbeat

For @Krypton~

Lucani was close to death. She had been ill for weeks, and when the plague had hit and the consequences persevered, her health had plummeted. Her short grey fur was scraggly and her ribs were showing, and when she spoke it was with a soft croak. But she was alive, still, albeit painfully so — she survived off dead locusts and vast quantities of fresh water, which if nothing else could at least soothe her hunger pangs. Lasher had caught her a fish, but she had given it away, silently and self-righteously refusing to eat food when it could be given to young pups or pregnant mothers. And so she was wasting away, and point-blank refused to ponder on this, instead continuing a very slow trudge from potential herb cache to potential herb cache. Every day she did this without thought or musing.

Today she wandered over the border, no less, perhaps as some kind of starved delusion or perhaps because she had smelt something promising off to the west. Either way, the towering stick-insect dragged herself very slowly onwards, scruffy muzzle low in search of something that was either there or not there.